Proposal for JXPath Package

(0) Rationale

In heterogenous techologies like Struts, XML documents are combined with object graphs consisting of JavaBeans, collections, arrays, maps and primitive values. In such systems there is a need for a consistent way of referencing both parts of XML documents and elements of object graphs. XPath is a powerful language introduced by W3C (XML Path Language) as a common format for addressing elements of XML documents. The proposed JXPath component provides a mechanism for applying the same XPath language to generic object graphs.

(1) Scope of the Package

This proposal is to create a package of Java utility methods for accessing and modifying the elements of arbitrary graphs consisting of JavaBeans, collections, arrays, maps and primitive values using the XPath syntax. This package will (at least initially) depend on an external implementation of an XPath expression processor.

This package augments BeanUtils, which provides a lighter-weight reference format.

(1.5) Interaction With Other Packages

JXPath relies on

Java Development Kit (Version 1.2 or later)
A JAXP 1.1 implementation
An XPath interpreter implementation. Initially the package will only support the interpreter provided by the Apache Xalan project, but will have an extensibility mechanism that will allow adding alternative XPath processors later.

No external configuration files are utilized.

(2) Initial Source of the Package

The original source of the component was donated by PLOTNIX, Inc (www.plotnix.com).

The proposed package names for the new component are

org.apache.commons.jxpath for the main API package
org.apache.commons.jxpath.tree for a light-weight DOM-JavaBeans API adapter
org.apache.commons.jxpath.xalan for a Xalan XPath interpreter adapter

(3) Required Jakarta-Commons Resources

CVS Repository - New directory jxpath in the jakarta-commons CVS repository. There is a requirement to setup an additional committer: Dmitri Plotnikov.
Mailing List - Discussions will take place on the general jakarta-commons@jakarta.apache.org mailing list. To help list subscribers identify messages of interest, it is suggested that the message subject of messages about this component be prefixed with [JXPath].
Bugzilla - New component "JXPath" under the "Commons" product category, with appropriate version identifiers as needed.
Jyve FAQ - New category "commons-jxpath" (when available).

(4) Initial Committers

The initial committers on the JXPath component shall be Dmitri Plotnikov and James Strachan.